Fear and Loathing

[Fairchild]

He stood up immediately after Violet has woken him up, first thinking something happened to the Outcast. His eyes widened and he looked unnerved. Upon seeing the biochemist, he calmed down a bit.

"What...?" he rubbed his eyes and ran his hands down his face. "What's...? Oh," he spoke with a sleepy voice, noticing the black hazmat box. "Thank you very much, Ms Burbank... I'll make sure you're appropriately rewarded for this, uh... I, er... I have to go back to work, my apologies. Thank you again," he said, nodding with a forced smile.

Nagrebetskiy picked up the box from the trolley and came back into the office. Jera was still in there, sitting in his armchair, wide awake. As the professor came in and put the box down by the door, she glanced up and greeted him.

"Seems he's woken up already," she stood up, giving back the professor's chair.

"No complications? Nothing?" he asked with a note of relief. The Corsair shook her head.

"Have you given him any Stabiline? I wonder how much is it going to take him until... well, you know."

"We have, but he refused. I think he's hoping for the addiction to kill him before we are done. He is disposable, though. We will have finished by that time."

After a short pause she asked "Do you need me for anything else?"

"No, no," he smiled at her warmly. "We will be starting the experiment in a few minutes, though. Do you want to stay?" She nodded in response, standing back.

Nagrebetskiy sat down in his chair and looked at the console. The health diagnostics was still running and it seemed like everything was in order. On the camera feed the Outcast was sitting against a wall. He did not seem to be sleeping. The professor needed to download the brain-mapping software to the Vergil core in the Outcast's cell.

$ vpm install beale
Downloading package: beale (Beale Mindmap)

The software would take a minute to transfer and install inside the quantum chip. Nikita stood up.

"I'm going to, er, load the vents. I'll be right back." He took the hazmat container and walked to the corridor outside.

In the wall of the cell corridor there was a small cavity, with a couple of pipes hanging out, in which the hazmat container would fit. He carried it there and connected the pipes. They led to the isolated ventilation system that the three cells were using. He opened the vent of the middle cell and went back into the office. He would have to open the valve through his console.

Jera waited for him inside. "We're all set." He reviewed the health diagnostics one more time, making sure everything is in order. He checked the synchronisation logs for the second time. The fear gas was ready for release. He turned to the Vergil console and fired up the brain-mapping software.

$ beale -al
Set mode to: complete.
Set logging to: on.
Beginning the mindmap...

He looked at the Outcast in the cell. He was still sitting, looking at the lamp camera. Nagrebetskiy smirked at him, even though he knew Antonio couldn't see him. He opened the vent. The cell started filling with bright-red nerve agent.

"Let the spectacle begin."